More than $1.5bn of border wall funding has produced a mere 1.7 miles of fencing along the nation’s southern border, a federal judge was told.
US District Judge Haywood Gillam requested the information while considering requests by 20 state attorneys general and the environmental group Sierra Club to prevent Donald Trump’s administration from using the funds to build the wall.
Congress previously appropriated the total $1.57bn to be used towards the president’s long-time campaign promise throughout the entirety of the 2018 fiscal year.
An attorney reprsenting the state attorneys general wrote in a court filing “it appears that [Customs and Border Protection] has now constructed 1.7 miles of fencing with its fiscal year 2018 funding.”
The motion filed by 20 states decried Trump’s decision to circumvent Congress and pull federal funds by invoking a national emergency declaration, with attorneys general describing the move as an “abuse of power.”
“This wall is unnecessary, and an abuse of power that will take away resources that could be used to help Americans across our nation,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement when the motion was filed in April.
The motion followed a lawsuit filed in February against the president’s national emergency declaration.
The federal judge was provided the latest information on the border wall funding and construction during a 17 May hearing.